LADY DRAGONS RETURN HOME LOOKING TO REBOUND AFTER SEASON’S FIRST LOSS

Posted 2 years ago

By Glen Grunwald

For the first time in a long time, the Hutchinson Community College women’s basketball team is entering a regular-season game coming off a loss.

The NJCAA No. 1-ranked Lady Dragons return home to take on a surging Butler Grizzlies team at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Sports Arena. The game will be broadcast live on Blue Dragon flagship station KHUT-FM (102.9) and on sister station KWBW-AM (1450) beginning at 5:20 p.m. A live videostream and audio-only stream are both available on the Blue Dragon Sports Network (www.bluedragonsports.com) beginning at 5:20 p.m.

The last regular-season loss the Lady Dragons suffered came on Jan. 15, 2011 when HCC dropped a 55-51 decision at Butler. Since then, HCC reeled off 64-straight regular-season victories and 36 in a row in Jayhawk West play.

Those streaks were snapped after dropping a 64-62 overtime decision on Wednesday at Garden City. HCC went 753 days between regular-season losses.

Now the Lady Dragons take on Butler (18-5, 6-3), which has won two in a row and 6 of the last 7 games and has had a week to prepare for Hutchinson.

Last Saturday, Butler overwhelmed the same Garden City team that defeated HCC 73-46 at El Dorado. High-scoring guard Jamillah Bonner led the Grizzlies with 21 points, nine rebounds and seven steals against the Broncbusters.

Hutchinson captured the first meeting with the Grizzlies, winning 58-45 at the Power Plant on Jan. 9. Jamie Patrick knocked down three 3-pointers and finished with 18 points to lead Hutchinson. Ashlee Ivy had 12 points to lead Butler.

Saturday’s game is a matchup of the two-best defensive teams in the Jayhawk West.

HCC’s Sports Arena winning streak up to 76 games
A 86-33 victory over Dodge City last Saturday extended the Lady Dragons’ team-record home-court winning streak to 76 games.

The current streak started with an 80-26 victory over Pratt on Jan. 28, 2009.

The last team to defeat the Lady Dragons at the Sports Arena was Barton.

HCC has won 90 of its last 92 games at home and are 103-3 at the Sports Arena under head coach John Ontjes.

HCC has had 13 streaks of at least 10 or more consecutive home victories.

HCC working on other impressive streaks
+ Opponents shooting less than 50 percent – Opponents have not shot 50 percent or more from the field in 88 consecutive games.

The last time an opponent shot 50 percent or better came in the sixth game of the 2010-11 season when South Plains shot right at 50 percent (23 of 46) from the field. That’s the only time in the John Ontjes era that an opponent has shot 50 percent.

Before that, the Lady Dragons went 117 straight games without allowing a team to shoot 50 percent or better.

+ Non-Conference regular-season streak – With its 81-52 victory over Neosho County on Jan. 2, the Lady Dragons have reeled off 35-straight non-conference victories dating back to a 69-63 loss to South Plains on Nov. 20, 2010.

2013 Sophomores cementing legacy in HCC history
The 2013 Lady Dragons sophomores are currently tied for third in team history in wins by a sophomore class with 59. Wednesday’s victory over Dodge City tied 2011 sophomores for third.

As freshmen, this group of sophomores – Jasmine Patterson, Aja Sorrells, Jade Herl, Kyrsten Crawford and Chrisstasia Walter (redshirt) – won 36 games and went all the way to the NJCAA championship game.

The 2013 sophomores became only the fifth sophomore class in team history to win 50 games. That came in an 81-52 victory over Neosho County on Jan. 2. The 2012 sophomores lead all HCC sophomore classes with 66 victories. The 2010 sophomore class won 60 games

About the 2012-13 Lady Dragons
+ The Lady Dragons rank No. 1 currently in the Jayhawk West in scoring offense, field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage. HCC is currently averages 76.4 points per game, while shooting 46.2 percent overall and 37.5 percent from 3-point range. HCC shoots 63.0 percent from the foul line.

+ Hutchinson leads the Jayhawk West and is fourth in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 46.4 points per game. The Lady Dragons lead the league in field-goal defense at 29.8 percent. Opponents are shooting 22.3 from 3-point range, which ranks second in the league.

+ Sophomore point guard Chrisstasia Walter is HCC’s leading scorer averaging 13.4 points per game, which ranks sixth in the Jayhawk West. She leads the West in steals (3.96/game) and assists (5.92/game). Walter is third in single-season steals and is ninth on the HCC single-season assists list. She averages 5.5 rebounds per game.

+ Freshman guard Jamie Patrick leads the league in field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage. Seventh in the league in scoring at 12.6 points per game, Patrick is shooting 55.2 percent overall and 43.8 percent from 3-point range. She has a team-high 42 3-pointers. Patrick is averaging 5.2 rebounds per game.

+ Sophomore Jasmine Patterson averages 12.1 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds. She also has a team-high 33 blocked shots and has 50 assists and 35 steals. Patterson is ninth in the league in scoring, fifth in blocked shots and seventh in rebounding.

+ Sophomore forward Aja Sorrells is fourth in scoring, averaging 9.9 points on 51.1 percent shooting. In the Jayhawk West, Sorrells is shooting 55.8 percent, averaging 10.7 points per game. Sorrells ranks No. 1 in the league in free-throw shooting at 82.8 percent, sixth in steals at 2.41 per game and seventh in field-goal percentage.

+ The Lady Dragons average a league-best 21.4 assists per game. Walter has a team-high 142 and freshman Jen’Von’Ta Hill has 91. Hill is fourth in the league with 3.79 assists per game. Both Walter and Hill have 10-assist games this season.

+ The Lady Dragons are out-rebounding opponents with a plus-10.6 rebounding margin. HCC is pulling down 43.7 rebounds, while giving up 33.1 boards. HCC is averaging 14.6 offensive rebounds per game. HCC has broken the 60-rebound mark twice this season.

+ HCC turns the ball over 15.8 times per game, while forcing 23.9 turnovers. Nineteen of 24 opponents have had 20 or more turnovers this season. Six have had 30 or more.

+ The Lady Dragons are scoring 23.2 points per game off the bench. Freshman Bri Starks is averaging 6.8 points and 4.8 rebounds.

+ Starks ranks fifth in the Jayhawk West in field-goal percentage at 52.5 percent.

+ Hutchinson is 3-0 vs. nationally ranked opponents, defeating No. 25 NEO, No. 4 Iowa Western and No. 11 Garden City. Garden City fell out of the rankings earlier in the day before upsetting Hutchinson on Wednesday.

Scouting Butler
+ Since losing back-to-back games – a three-overtime loss to Garden City and a 13-point home setback to Hutchinson – the Grizzlies have won two in a row and 6 of the last 7 games entering play on Saturday.

+ This is the best offensive team that Butler has had in head coach Mike Helmer’s five seasons. The Grizzlies average 73.7 points per game, which is second in the Jayhawk West. The Grizzlies are third in field-goal percentage at 42.2 percent and rank eighth in 3-point shooting at 29.1 percent. The Grizzlies have made the second-fewest 3-pointers in the league this season, 77.

+ The Grizzlies have one of the best defensive teams in the league and NJCAA. Butler allows 50.7 points per game, which ranks No. 2 in the Jayhawk West. Butler leads the league in 3-point defense at 20.6 percent and is second in defensive field-goal percentage at 31.6 percent.

+ Sophomore guard Jamillah Bonner is a Jayhawk West Player of the Year candidate who is the second-leading scorer, currently at 16.9 points per game. She has 11 games of 24 or more points with a high of 30 points. Bonner is shooting 36.4 percent, 22.2 percent from 3-point range and 73.8 percent from the free-throw line. Bonner is second in the West in rebounding (8.9 rpg) and offensive rebounding (3.83 rpg). Bonner ranks second in the Jayhawk West with 3.96 steals per game.